Entrepreneurial Failure is the Secret Sauce

CareerCast - Life-long Career Development

Hap Klopp Some people believe that failure could be career ending. Hap Klopp, founder of the iconic brand, The North Face, a Stanford graduate, and a serial entrepreneur, believes that the opposite is true. He has seen that failure can be (and often is) the secret sauce for massive amounts of courage, confidence, and even funding. In this CareerCast, Klopp shares how he and many other successful entrepreneurs have used failure as a foundation for significant entrepreneurial success.

Aired December 18, 2015

Hap Klopp, is the founder of the iconic brand, The North Face, a Stanford graduate, and a serial entrepreneur. Klopp consults around the globe, and lectures on the topic of entrepreneurship – particularly entrepreneurship as it is found in Silicon Valley. He is the author of two previous books on business, including the acclaimed leadership book, Conquering The North Face: An Adventure in Leadership.

Klopp holds an AB and MBA from Stanford University. He has lectured at the business schools of Stanford, University of California, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, University of San Francisco, and a number of international universities. He has been profiled on national television and in such publications as BusinessWeek, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, and Inc.

In addition to mentoring entrepreneurs, Klopp is presently the executive chairman of Obscura Digital, a San Francisco based digital communication company, and serves on numerous boards of directors.

ALMOST: 12 Electric Months Chasing A Silicon Valley Dream, Hap Klopp and Brian Tarcy (2015)

Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future, Peter Thiel and Blake Masters (2014)

Disciplined Entrepreneurship: 24 Steps to a Successful Startup, Bill Aulet (2013)

The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses, Eric Ries (2011)

The Power of Convergence: Linking Business Strategies and Technology Decisions to Create Sustainable Success, Faisal Hogue et al. (2011)

The Social Entrepreneur’s Handbook: How to Start, Build, and Run a Business That Improves the World, Rupert Scofield (2011)

The Startup Game: Inside the Partnership between Venture Capitalists and Entrepreneurs, William H. Draper (2011)

Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup, David G. Cohen and Brad Feld (2010)

The Silicon Valley Way: Discover 45 Secrets for Successful Start-Ups (2nd Edition), Elton B. Sherwin Jr. (2010)

Start Small, Stay Small: A Developer’s Guide to Launching a Startup, Rob Walling and Mike Taber (2010)

Loops: The Seven Keys to Small Business Success, Mike Chaet and Stephen C. Lundin (2009)

Mission, Inc.: The Practitioners Guide to Social Enterprise, Kevin Lynch and Julius Walls (2009)

How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas (Updated Edition), David Bornstein (2007)

Winning the 3-Legged Race: When Business and Technology Run Together, Faisal Hogue et al (2005)

Almost by Hap Klopp

Read an excerpt of ALMOST: 12 Electric Months Chasing A Silicon Valley Dream by Hap Klopp and Brian Tarcy.

Read the Excerpt